The Snapdragon 845 is Qualcomm’s next flagship processor

It was a busy day in Maui as Qualcomm kicked off this year’s Snapdragon Tech Summit. The San Diego chipmaker announced a two-in-one PC form factor powered by the Snapdragon 835 that has some big name hardware partners like Asus and HP behind it. The company also used the opportunity to tease its latest flagship processor, the Snapdragon 845.

Details are still pretty scarce, but the company confirmed rumors that the chip is due out in 2018. The 845 is almost certain to become ubiquitous on high-end flagships next year, taking the place of the 835, which was introduced this time last year and powered nearly every high-end handset for the next 12 months.

Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun took to the stage today to announce that his company’s next premium handset would run on the chip. You can expect plenty of other big name Android hardware companies to follow suit soon after. Samsung, Google and LG all built 2017 flagships around the chip — though those companies may well just wait for their next product announcements to throw their weight behind the 845.

The chip will likely be found in other, non-Android devices, as well, including Windows 10 PCs, among others. And given the company’s embrace of VR headsets with the 835, I wouldn’t be too surprised to see the 845 popping up in some of those, as well.

Without divulging too much in the way of specs, Qualcomm SVP Alex Katouzian highlighted a few of the key focuses for the chip, including imaging/video processing, AI, VR/AR and battery life. In other words, precisely what one would expect from the next generation flagship chip from the company.

We’re likely to hear a lot more about the chip tomorrow, on day two of the summit, so stay tuned.